Complete Care Guide: Hoya Australis Lisa
Complete Care Guide: Hoya Australis Lisa
In this article, you'll find…
Plant Info
Care Guide
Lighting
Watering
Humidity
Soil Needs
Types
Propagating
Common Issues
Frequently Asked Questions
Plant Info
Hoya Australis Lisa is the variegated form of Hoya australis, interestingly far easier to get your hands on than the non-variegated, fully-green version of the plant. Like the name suggests, Hoya Australis -- the non-variegated variety -- hails from Australia, growing along the edges of rainforests and along rocky habitats.
Like all hoyas, Lisa is an epiphytic climber -- meaning that it's rare to find a hoya that's growing out of the ground! Hoyas grow on trees, rocks, telephone poles -- whatever's around -- while they climb, twirling their vines in search of more light!
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Common Name(s) |
Hoya Australis Lisa, Hoya Lisa, Waxvine, Waxplant |
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Botanical Name |
Hoya australis 'Lisa' |
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Botanical Family |
Apocynaceae, the dogbane family |
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Mature Size |
Vines can grow very long, up to 10-15'! |
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Lighting |
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Watering |
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Humidity |
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Soil Mix |
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Flowers |
White, sweetly-scented clusters of small, star-shaped flowers will appear on mature vines with enough light |
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Hardiness |
Tropical; keep above 10C/50F. |
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Native Region |
Hoya australis is native to Australia! |
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Toxicity |
Completely safe for ingestion -- the nectar of the flowers is reportedly tasty, in fact! |
Take a look at this care guide as an infographic!
Care Guide
Hoya Australis Lisa is a succulent vine that can grow very long in the search for more and more light. New leaves will come in scarlet red, so long as it's in high enough lighting, and then fade through pink to a mottled green and cream pattern, looking almost like someone took watercolour paints to each leaf! Every leaf is different, but generally the inside is creamy yellow, and the outside of each leaf is a darker green. Lisas in higher lighting situations will have a higher proportion of the creamy leaf centre.
Leaves will fill in along the vines in pairs opposite each other, and are rounded -- about 5cm/2" wide, at their largest! Don't worry if it grows a long runner vine without any leaves at first -- it's searching for support, and once it finds it, it'll quickly fill in with leaves to capture that light!
As with all hoyas, it's not just the foliage that Hoya Lisa is grown for -- but the flowers, as well! Flowers will appear in clusters at the end of short stems called peduncles -- they're white, star-shaped, sweetly-scented, and produce a lot of nectar (which is both safe for human consumption and reportedly tasty)! Don't cut off the peduncles when the beautiful flowers fade, though -- they'll rebloom from the same spot year after year!
Lighting
You'll want to give your Hoya Australis Lisa as much lighting as you can -- even a bit of direct sun, particularly if you acclimatize it to direct sun slowly over a couple weeks. Hoyas are from the rainforest undercanopy, so they're not used to full, direct sun.
That having been said, more lighting will make your Lisa grow faster, as well as make sure there's plenty of variegation on each new leaf! New leaves will come in bright scarlet if it's getting enough light, and then slowly fade to a creamy white over time.
High light will also encourage more blooms, quicker!
Make sure to check out our general article on lighting!
Watering
Watering a hoya is super simple -- because they store water in their succulent leaves, they come equipped with a handy tool to determine when it's time to water!
It's called the taco test -- when you're checking your plants to see if each one needs watering, simply grab a leaf close to the soil, and try to gently fold it in half like a taco. If there's any resistance -- stop immediately! You can, if you're not careful, snap a leaf in half doing a taco test when it's not ready to be watered. If there's no resistance, and the leaf is fairly bendy, then there isn't much water in the leaves -- and it's time to water!
In general, Australis Lisa has low watering needs!
Make sure to check out our general article on watering!
Humidity
Hoyas definitely want higher humidity than the average household will have -- ideally, provide it with higher humidity by either running a humidifier, or by grouping it closely together with other plants.
If you can't, though, don't fret! It won't be the happiest it can be, but your Australis Lisa will acclimate to your household humidity.
Make sure to check out our general article on humidity – including a couple common myths!
Soil Needs
Hoyas are epiphytes, meaning that they generally don't grow in the soil in the ground -- their roots will grow nestled in the crooks of trees, or even sometimes on rocks (or telephone poles, or houses...)! This means that they need very well-draining substrate with lots of air around their roots, and lots of chunky bits for their roots to grab on to -- but also means that they don't need very large pots, since they're used to small spaces in the wild.
Suggestion: Start with 2 parts peat-based potting mix or coco coir, mix in 1 part perlite, and 2 parts orchid bark.
Don't know why you're adding these things? Check out our article on potting mixes!
Types
Hoya Australis Lisa is a cultivar of the regular green Hoya australis, which has a number of different natural varieties as well throughout its range, but Lisa is by far the most commonly found in cultivation!
Propagating
Want more baby plants? You can easily propagate with stem cuttings, the exact same way as you do with most vining houseplants!
Simply cut off a section of stem with a few leaves, just above a node (where the leaves meet the stem), take off the lowest leaf or two (making sure to leave at least one leaf on it, but ideally a few), and then stick it in water or a moist substrate, making sure that at least one node stays moist. Put it in a bright spot for a few weeks, and you'll see roots forming!
Check out our articles on water propagation, soil propagation, or air layering for more details on common propagation methods!
Common Issues
Hoya Australis Lisa's most common issue is definitely related to overwatering -- remember that it doesn't need much water at all.
All houseplants are susceptible to pests, including mealybugs, spider mites, and more. They aren't known to be particularly susceptible to any specific pest!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't my Australis Lisa flowering?
There are two parts to a hoya flowering: maturity and lighting! If your hoya is still pretty young, have patience; if it's a few years old, make sure it's getting as much light as it can! It's also commonly said that hoyas flower most quickly when they're slightly root-bound; this is likely due to a stress response, though!
Why are the new leaves coming in red?
Short answer: That's completely normal in high light situations -- they'll fade to the normal patterning over time!
Longer, more science-y answer: New leaves need protection from harmful UV rays; until they've hardened off, when the plant can detect that it's getting a lot of light (and therefore, in nature, a lot of UV rays), Hoya Lisa will cover the leaf surface with anthocyanins, a type of chemical that protects against UV rays... and happens to appear red! (In this plant, at least; they can also appear purplish or orangeish, depending on the species of plant.) Once the leaf is matured, the anthocyanins aren't necessary anymore, and the natural chlorophyll patterning takes over!